Tropical Storm Bill Makes Landfall in Texas
Tropical Storm Bill was making landfall at 11 a.m. CDT on Matagorda Island, Texas on June 16 as NASA and NOAA satellites gathered data on the storm.
At NASA a movie of Bill’s landfall was created using data from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite. The center of Bill is expected to move inland over south-central Texas during the afternoon and night of June 16.
On June 15 at 19:15 UTC (3:15 p.m. EDT) the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Bill approaching Texas and Louisiana. Powerful thunderstorms circled the center in fragmented bands.
At 11 a.m. CDT on June 16, a Tropical Storm Warning was in effect from Baffin Bay to High Island Texas as Bill was making landfall.
An animation of visible and infrared imagery from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite was created by NASA/NOAA’s GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The animation shows Tropical Storm Bill developing in the Gulf of Mexico on June 14 and 15 and its landfall along the southeastern Texas coast on June 16.
The National Hurricane Center noted that Bill is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 4 to 8 inches over eastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma and 2 to 4 inches over western Arkansas and southern Missouri, with possible isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches in eastern Texas. In eastern Texas and far western Louisiana today and tonight, isolated tornadoes are also possible, as with any landfalling tropical storm.
Tropical storm conditions are expected to continue into the evening in the warning area. Along the coasts, the combination of a storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters. The water could reach the following heights above ground if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide. The NHC noted that the Upper Texas coast could experience 2 to 4 feet, and the western Louisiana coast between 1 to 2 feet.
At 10 a.m. CDT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Bill was located near latitude 28.2 North, longitude 96.4 West. Bill was moving toward the northwest near 10 mph (17 kph) and that general motion is expected to continue today. The latest minimum central pressure reported by an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft was 997 millibars. Reports from an Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds remain near 60 mph (95 kph) with higher gusts.
Unlike Carlos, Bill is not a compact storm. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles (240 km) from the center. Between 9 and 10 a.m. CDT, an automated observing station at Port O’Connor also reported a sustained wind of 44 mph (70 kph) and a gust to 53 mph (85 kph).
For updated forecasts, watches and warnings, visit the National Hurricane Center webpage at www.nhc.noaa.gov. For local forecasts and advisories, visit: www.weather.gov.
Bill is forecast to continue moving inland and is expected to be a tropical depression by Wednesday, June 17, west of Dallas. The remnants of Bill are forecast to move into the Midwest later in the week.
